All of this reminds me that it's been quite some time since I've removed a cat (the long-hair cat lives in my office and I'm forever scraping her fur off the external intake grilles) from the guts of the P182. Depending on what I find, I might have some lurid pics to contribute tomorrow (phone takes crappy pics without BRIGHT sunlight and the DSLR batteries think electrons are neutrons).

Water cooling. Not everyone is going to use water cooling to overclock if they even overclock at all. Why don't the manufacturers offer the same model without the vents on top of the case?

Locations for additional exhaust fans are potentially useful even if you don't watercool. Just don't set your drink up there where it can potentially get dumped into the vents. Perhaps they could provide some panels you can install if you don't intend to install top fans? This would potentially improve airflow a bit when there aren't fans there.

This is pretty much my only beef with my Corsair 300R and my Dad's 200R, the vent on top where not only my drink can enter but dust as well.

From my 2012 build to my 2107 build I have stopped using 5.25", 3.5", and 2.5" drives. Case size has dropped by a third while fan size has increased to 140mm from 120mm.

This reminds me of around 10 years ago when the trend for cell phones was to make them as small as possible. They got to the point where the mic was around the top end of your cheek and didn't work very well. Fortunately that trend died when people realized that using them sucked along with smartphones coming on to the scene. Now it seems everyone is copying apple with all their proprietary systems, just like how computers were back in the 90's. Along with making them as small as possible and removing almost all expandability options. Just like in the 90's when they made systems as slim as possible using crappy riser cards and proprietary parts not easily replaceable. That's what got me building computers back in the 90's, so I could avoid all this mess and make my computer upgradable and able to do what I wanted it to be able to do.

I'm not sure what my post has to do with your paranoia about proprietary systems and tiny cell phones. I'm using a mid-size case that can take up to an EATX motherboard. As I no longer use hard drives in my PC I was able to remove the dual 3.5" bays to improve internal airflow. The 2.5" bays are empty at the moment as my 1TB M.2 NVMe drive is all I need. The bulk of my storage needs are handled by my NAS.

Got them around about the time when Core 2 released. Case was expensive, but it is incredibly good and still looks as good today as it was new (after some dusting off). I've since modded the front panel USBs to get 3.0 in there, but otherwise I expect it to keep it for as long as ATX is a thing.

I'm not sure what my post has to do with your paranoia about proprietary systems and tiny cell phones. I'm using a mid-size case that can take up to an EATX motherboard. As I no longer use hard drives in my PC I was able to remove the dual 3.5" bays to improve internal airflow. The 2.5" bays are empty at the moment as my 1TB M.2 NVMe drive is all I need. The bulk of my storage needs are handled by my NAS.

It wasn't a paranoia, just pointing out how everyone is so eager to get rid of all sorts of bays and old formats nowdays. The way you worded it made it seem that it is great to get rid of all that old stuff, if it wasn't meant that way, then feel free to ignore what I said.

Historically my desktop has been in one of those Cheming/Chieftech bomb-proof towers that JAE posted about, but the problem with all those cases is they only come with 80mm fan mounts, so they are really hard to make quiet if they contain a reasonably powerful machine.

Currently, my desktop is housed in a Fractal Design Define S, but for nearly everything else, I've been addicted to the Cooler Master Elite Mini-ITX cases. Sadly, they stopped making the 120, but the 110 has been my go-to case for simple systems that don't require a bunch of storage or graphics. They're reasonably compact, they take a standard ATX power supply, and they support a big 140mm fan in the front of the case so they aren't annoyingly loud, even under heavy load. I have a few at work housing 4790k and 6700k systems that run VM farms for apps that need lots of CPU speed, and they are dead silent 99% of the time.

I'm not sure what my post has to do with your paranoia about proprietary systems and tiny cell phones. I'm using a mid-size case that can take up to an EATX motherboard. As I no longer use hard drives in my PC I was able to remove the dual 3.5" bays to improve internal airflow. The 2.5" bays are empty at the moment as my 1TB M.2 NVMe drive is all I need. The bulk of my storage needs are handled by my NAS.

It wasn't a paranoia, just pointing out how everyone is so eager to get rid of all sorts of bays and old formats nowdays. The way you worded it made it seem that it is great to get rid of all that old stuff, if it wasn't meant that way, then feel free to ignore what I said.

I am eager to get rid of bays and old formats when they no longer serve a purpose.

Glass windows on cases, why would anyone want something that very easy to break on their hardware? It seems that way too many otherwise real nice cases have this "feature"

I agree with you about glass. Other materials, though... The Enthoo Pro M I bought happened to come with the clear acrylic panel, and honestly it's pretty cool. Of course, your wiring job has to be 100% perfect (and I feel like mine is, considering I have a fully-modular power supply and arranged the drives so I could use as few connectors as possible) since everything is visible.

I'm not a perfectionist about an awful lot, but I'm a big proponent of quiet PCs with unobstructed air flow, so I like to keep cables out of the way and behind the mobo trays.

I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.

Glass windows on cases, why would anyone want something that very easy to break on their hardware? It seems that way too many otherwise real nice cases have this "feature"

Glass usually isn't that easy to break as long as it's been properly heat-treated. It has a few things going for it vs. acrylic: it doesn't scratch nearly as easily, is often clearer/transparent, feels more "solid" (doesn't "twist"), etc..

Where it is more prone to breaking is hitting an edge hard with something that is also hard, and to reduce this the glass needs to be edge-treated (rounded - in addition to the heat-treatment) and specifically: thicker.

As far as being prone to breaking: it largely depends on use. I don't think most cases are going to be subjected to the sort of stresses that would result in a broken window, at least not anymore than a cabinet door in your kitchen.

-as for aesthetics: people tend to like to see where all their money is going: pride of ownership and their ability to build a nice "rig".

My current favorite case (provided the builder can produce a clean build):

Glass windows on cases, why would anyone want something that very easy to break on their hardware? It seems that way too many otherwise real nice cases have this "feature"

Glass usually isn't that easy to break as long as it's been properly heat-treated. It has a few things going for it vs. acrylic: it doesn't scratch nearly as easily, is often clearer/transparent, feels more "solid" (doesn't "twist"), etc..

Where it is more prone to breaking is hitting an edge hard with something that is also hard, and to reduce this the glass needs to be edge-treated (rounded - in addition to the heat-treatment) and specifically: thicker.

Yep. My Enthoo Evolv has a perspex window that got scratched in shipping because the box with screws that was packed in the case had come loose and hit it. Would not have happened with tempered glass.

I'm not sure what my post has to do with your paranoia about proprietary systems and tiny cell phones. I'm using a mid-size case that can take up to an EATX motherboard. As I no longer use hard drives in my PC I was able to remove the dual 3.5" bays to improve internal airflow. The 2.5" bays are empty at the moment as my 1TB M.2 NVMe drive is all I need. The bulk of my storage needs are handled by my NAS.

It wasn't a paranoia, just pointing out how everyone is so eager to get rid of all sorts of bays and old formats nowdays. The way you worded it made it seem that it is great to get rid of all that old stuff, if it wasn't meant that way, then feel free to ignore what I said.

I am eager to get rid of bays and old formats when they no longer serve a purpose.

Uhh.....it's probably a good idea for Starfalcon and End User to avoid direct interaction.

Uhh.....it's probably a good idea for Starfalcon and End User to avoid direct interaction.

Venkman: Why? Egg: It would be bad. Venkman: I'm fuzzy on the whole good/bad thing. What do you mean, "bad"? Egg: Try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light. Stantz: Total protonic reversal! Venkman: Right. That's bad. Okay. All right. Important safety tip. Thanks, Egg.

I bought these back in 2012 but, the prices are current prices and I don't know how much they have changed since then. Unless I find a case that I like exceptionally more than the 600T I will be using it over at least once more for my next build.